


Lily Evans and the List of Secrets

by Adabear



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama queen James, Everybody Lives, F/M, Gen, Harry had to get it from somewhere, M/M, Spitfire Lily, Werewolves, animagi, because i like things to be happy, because it basically is a trashy rom-com, decent human! Peter, fight me, lily finds out about stuff, peter is ooc, probably also going to end up being, summary sounds like a trashy rom-com
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7635763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adabear/pseuds/Adabear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily Evans was planning to spend her sixth year just like she'd spent the previous five; spending time with her friends, studying for her classes, rejecting the distasteful wooing from James Potter, and enjoying the general wonder that comes from attending a school of Magic. Lily did not anticipate an observation her friend Marlene made at the welcoming feast ("Awe, look. Mother hen Potter is in full effect already.") would cause her to wonder what the obnoxious group of boys did whenever they weren't behaving like monkeys. And she absolutely was not going to let her curiosity get the better of her. Not even a little. Lily definitely was not following them to the library to listen in on their conversation. She had to study! The table next to theirs just happened to be her favorite. Obviously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thumper

 

XXXXXX

 

Peter opened his eyes to see two black haired boys facing him, eyes wide with anticipation.

“SO?” James asked.

“What happened mate?” Sirius was scooting closer as if less physical distance between the two would get him the answer quicker.

Peter blinked a few times then shook his head before a wide grin took over his face. “I think it worked!”

The trio of boys we’re late into the second half of their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were currently holed up in a girls bathroom on the second floor, knowing it was a secluded place to work since the ghost that haunted it kept out most visitors. James had charmed the young ghost, named Moaning Myrtle, and now the space was theirs to use as a sort of illegal potions room.

After having come to the decision they wanted to do something to help a friend whom they had only recently learned was a werewolf; and upon doing some thorough research, the three boys had decided to become Animagi. While the process was not technically illegal to study, it did require notifying the ministry, and due in part to their desire to keep Remus’ status secret, and in part due to the reckless nature young boys tend to have, they were not planning on letting anyone in on their plans.

So their free time had been spent in secret in the girls lavatory. Peter, the best at potions in their little group, finished the _Hiwan Rewah_ admixture, which was the third, suggested, step in the process to becoming an animagus. It wasn’t necessary as you could complete the transformation without ever learning what animal you were going to transfigure into before hand, but many modern transfiguration experts subscribed to the idea that if you could visualize the animal it made the process more successful.  

“It worked?” Sirius sounded equal parts excited and impressed. Peter tried not to be offended that Sirius had doubted it would work, and instead allowed himself to preen at the hidden complement.

“Well then tell us!” James shouted.

“Yeah mate we’ve been waiting for like hours.” Sirius whined

“Days even.” James was looking a bit wide eyed.

“It’s been _days?!_ ” Peter yelped.

“That’s not the main issue here Pete, what happened?” Sirius demanded.

“Come on!” James begged.

“What animal are you gonna turn into?” Sirius was nearly shaking him.

“No, nono, No. I need to know how long I was out for! We had homework due!” Peter was genuinely concerned, he did not want to fall behind because of some crazy attempt at illegal magic. And besides the potion was only supposed to last for 2-7 minutes, if he had been out for days then something had gone awfully wrong. Maybe though, that meant that his animal form wasn’t -   

“Relax Pete, it’s been like 5 minutes, maximum.” James said.

“Oh well nice of you to be so honest, I choose such kind and supportive friends.” Peter deadpanned.

“Don’t be so down on yourself mate, you didn’t get to pick us.” James said, placing a hand on Peters shoulder in an act of comfort.

“You were sorted and stuck with us, not really a lot of personal choice involved.” Sirius grinned.

“Now spill.” James said.

“I’m not sure if I want to tell you after all.” Peter said, turning his head with his nose to the air.

“Ohh I get it, it’s embarrassing." Sirius goaded him, "You probably got something ridiculous, like a mouse.”

“I did not get a mouse!” Peter was almost offended, would have been too if he didn’t know what animal he actually got.

“Oh No? so what did you get then?” Sirius' shoulder bumped him.

“A ra-” Peter let the answer turn into an inaudible mumble, a little embarrassed about the truth.

“A what now? Little louder Peety.” Sirius was nearly sat on his lap by this point.

“I got a rabbit okay.” Peter said, holding his chin high.

“Oh yeah definitely not as bad as a mouse!” James almost giggled.

“No, not at all” Sirius was holding back giggles too.

“Peter the Rabbit!” James announced, “Has a nice ring to it.” Peter had hopped they would have had no knowledge about the story of Peter Rabbit. He wanted to avoid any jokes related to the muggle fairy tale, and had thought his odds were rather high, considering the other two boys we’re both from wizard families.

“Couldn’t think of anything more fitting!” And Sirius and James burst into laughter, physically rolling on the floor.

“Have you got a little fluffy tail?” Sirius choked out through his laugher.

“And a twitchy button nose?” James continued.

“Can you give us a good cackle, Babbity?” Sirius nudged Peter’s ribcage. Peter had no idea what that was supposed to be referring to.

“Pete quick let me pet your foot! Need some luck for when I ask Lily out!” James was reaching for his shoe as he spoke.

“Need some extra luck before you get rejected you mean.” Sirius accused, slapping James' hand back .

“She’s gonna say yes” James turned to glare at him.

“Yeah in your dreams!” Sirius retorted.

“Eh! if you two don’t shut it I’ll vanish the rest of the potion and you’ll never get to become animagi!” Peter yelled out before the two started to actually fight, Lily was a touchy subject for James.

James gasped, “You wouldn’t”

Peter pulled out his wand, pointing it at the caldron. “Do you really wanna test me mate?”

“Um, not really.” James admitted, eying the wand with obvious fear.

“No need to make such drastic threats!” Sirius was panicked, and looked prepared to jump between the wand and the potion. 

“Bunnies are cute,” James attempted to placate him, “You’re sure to be a hit with the ladies!”

“Yeah mate, we bow to your superior potion abilities.” Sirius added.

“I thought as much.” Peter responded, before holding out the goblet. “So who’s next?”

 

XXXXXX

 

It was two days after Remus’ birthday and three of the beds in the third year boys dormitory we occupied. James had stayed after their last class, at Professor McGonagall's, request, and had insisted the other boys go on without him (in a manner that was more appropriate for a bad drama than a classroom). So Sirius, Remus, and Peter, left with little else to do until he returned, had begun to brainstorm nicknames for themselves.

Remus had been told, as a part of his 13th birthday gift, that the other three boys were attempting to become animagi. Remus had been quite flattered until he remembered that nearly a year ago professor McGonagall had, at James prompting, told the class not only how advanced the magic was, but also that it required quite a lot of paperwork be filed with the Ministry, and permission was only given to witches and wizards who had an advanced transfiguration tutor. Sirius had told him not to fret, because of course they wouldn’t get caught, and that they’d already started anyway, (“and I had to walk around with a mandrake leaf in my mouth for an entire month! That will not have been for nothing!”) so it was no use causing a fuss. James had been offended that Remus didn’t consider him an advanced transfiguration tutor and had threatened to stop participating in their study sessions. That only lasted until Remus pointed out that if he didn’t participate not only would James be left alone to struggle though arithmancy, the elective all four boys had decided to take, but he wouldn’t be getting any help in defence against the dark arts from him, nor potions, muggle studies, herbology, or astronomy from the other two boys.

After everyone had settled down Remus had been informed of all of their different animal forms (a large black dog, a majestic and brawny stag, and an equally, according to Peter, majestic and brawny rabbit). James was rather proud of coming up with Sirius’s nickname, as Padfoot seemed to work pretty well and Sirius thought it was hilarious. Peter had jokingly suggested Remus’ nickname, which he had tried to fight for a while; but nothing else had felt right. So, for the moment, he was allowing it. Plus, and Remus was loath to admit it, every time Sirius called him Moony his heart beat a little bit harder.

“I don’t know why we’re trying to come up with a nickname for James, he’s not even here so how can we judge his reaction?” Sirius whined loudly, rolling from his back to his stomach, and propping his head up on his hands.

“What? I thought that “Dear” was rather appropriate, and I know he’d appreciate the pun.” Remus defend his most recent suggestion.

“It’d get old in two weeks, you know it would!” Sirius debated.

“Besides It’s not really a secret code type of nickname is it?” Peter added.

“No if I’m honest it really was a bit lazy.” Remus admitted. The room fell back into silence. It was quiet for almost a full five minutes. Remus was reaching precariously far over his bed to grab his knapsack in order to be ready to start on homework as soon as James got back when Sirius interrupted the silence with a rather loud;

“Merlin's TROUSERS!”

Remus tumbled off the bed, with a hard thump, and shot the boy a glare. Peter screeched loudly, his hand flying up to his heart, before he leaned forward to check on Remus.

“Sorry Moony.” Sirius looked over at him and pouted a little in apology. Remus ignored the flutter in his chest and pushed himself into a sitting position.

“What thought process could have possibly required that level of volume?” Remus inquired.

“We've got _secret code names._ ” Sirius said excitedly.

"Some of us, yes." Remus confirmed.

"SO...!" Sirius looked expectantly at the two other boys. 

"So..?" Peter echoed.

"That means we've got Secrets" Sirius explained, leaving an intentional dramatic pause. "Secrets that need to be protected." 

"Aye mate that is rather the point. Are you just figuring this out?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, please tell me I didn't get a concussion for that underwhelming revelation." Remus said from his spot on the ground. 

 

"I _mean"_ Sirius said, "we should probably come up with a way to keep track of them all, figure out ways to throw others off the scent."

 

“Evening my fine gentlemen!” James announced as he walked through the door. Throwing his own bag on his bed he glanced around the room. “What are you doing on the floor Re- Moony?” James was still trying to get used to referring to the two boys by their nicknames.

“Nevermind, what did McGonagall want?” Remus asked, standing up and leaning against his bed frame. 

“Ah Minnie just wanted to congratulate me on getting top marks on the last test, gave me ten points for it! Sat though the 'My top student should participate in class and stop disrupting his fellow classmates and purposefully transfiguring everything into phallic versions of the intended object' lecture again though.” James grinned crookedly.

“That can go on the list!” Sirius said delightedly. 

“What list?” James asked, throwing himself onto the bed next to Sirius'.

“Secrets, Jamie boy! we're gonna make a list of all of our top-secret secrets.” Sirius grinned.

"I hope you don't count James' dick humor as a secret." Remus muttered. 

“It sounds a bit dumb to write them all down.” Peter said 

“Well obviously we wouldn’t write them all down! It would just be something that we knew, as, you know, a contingency plan.” Sirius explained.

“It wouldn’t be that long a list would it? What’s the point?” Remus asked.

“Well obviously Mr. Moony-pants -”

“Please never call me that again” Remus said. Sirius continued as if he hadn’t heard a thing.

“Our list of secrets is only going to grow, -”

“Good lord I hope not.” this equally ignored interruption came from Peter.

“So we make a list, with some safety measures, like security levels and code words, with regular secrets, and top-secret secrets, and fake secrets. That way, if any of us are ever captured and are threatened to give up our secrets or be tortured, we have a whole list of stuff we could say and not have to give away any truly valuable information.”

“Brilliant Padfoot!” James smiled at him.

“See James thinks I’m _brilliant.”_

“Why on earth do you think we’d be captured?” Remus looked aghast “And tortured for secrets about our friends?”

“You’ve never met my parents.” Sirius said. suddenly looking much less like an excitable puppy and more like a sad little boy.

A slightly uncomfortable pause followed Sirius statement. Remus walked over and sat next to him, placing a hand on his sholder. James sat up and gave the boy an encouraging smile, that earned a barely noticeably shaky smile in return. Peter grabbed a drooble from the packet he kept at his bedside which he tossed to his saddened friend.

Finally to break up the sullen mood James said, “Before I forget, I have to tell you about the conversation that Lily was just having!”

“Oi. we don’t need to hear about every conversation you creepily overhear.” Sirius teased, his smile turning a bit more genuine in reaction to James's excitement.

“I don’t tell you about all of them, just the important ones!” James retorted.

“Really? And what was so important about repeating word for word the discussion she and her friends had about their shopping plans for the next Hogsmeade trip?” Remus grumbled, remembering what happened the last time a conversation started this way.

“That is crucial information! We needed it in order to organize a plan to spontaneously bump into her, so I can casually suggest us all getting lunch together, so that she can see how great I am and fall in love with me.” James said.

“Oh, I’m sure that'll work out perfectly,” Peter said, sarcasm drenching every word.

“Well if you all don’t want to know the perfect nickname for darling Pete, simply due to the fact I got the idea from a stunning Miss. Evans, then by all means-” James trailed off.

“You’ve got something?” Peter was tentatively excited. He’d been insisting that he would, under no circumstances, be called Babbity; especially after he learned that she was a character from a (rather stupidly titled) children's fairy tale!

“I have. But if you don’t want to hear about my precious Lilykins, and I doubt even Merlin knows why you wouldn’t, than I shan’t tell you!’ James stuck his nose in the air. Then an expectant eyebrow raised as a signal to the quality of response he expected.

Peter took in a deep breath and, ignoring the pleading looks and desperate hand signals from the two boys in the bed opposite him, resigned himself;

“ _Please_ James! I would love absolutely _nothing more_ than for you to regale us with another tale of Lily and her beauty and genius. For it is only through your stories that we can truly comprehend the splendid wonder of all that she has to offer.”

“Oh, If you insist!” James finally allowed. Remus and Sirius both looked a bit murderous. “I had just entered the common room only for my eyes to be immediately pulled in her direction, she just commands the room you know? And I wandered, very casually, over. She was talking with Marlene, the short one, and absolutely gushing about this uh, mover, you know, that portrait thing you’re always going on about Petey?”

“A movie,” Peter supplied.

“Of course, a movie, apparently it’s about talking animals, and that got my attention, for obvious reasons; so I asked her, suavely, how muggles could make animals talk. She stared at me, and I got a bit lost in her eyes, they’re so green, It’s like looking at a large grass field, right after a rainstorm, early in the morning with the sun making it glow-” Sirius coughed loudly. “ -and you can sort of feel the warmth-” Sirius threw his pillow at him “Well anyways she said something about animating and dizzy and then continued to tell Marlene that Bambi makes friends with a skunk, called Flower, (which is ironic don’t you think) and a bunny rabbit named _Thumper.”_ James concluded his story with a big grin.

“You want to name me after a character from Bambi?” Peter sounded a bit appalled.

“I don’t see what’s wrong with it. After all Lily said-”

“Oh who gives a tosh about what Lily said!” Peter announced.

“I don’t know Thumper, I kind of think it works.” Sirius allowed.

“Better than Peter Cottontail anyway,” Remus added, knowing how much the boy hated the nickname since the bullies at his primary had used it to mock Peter’s for his rather large size.

“And Lily’s says he’s a real loyal sort!” James tacked on. Remus threw his pillow.

“Fine we can try it. But just until we find something better.” Peter concluded.  

 

XXXXXX

 

It was two weeks later when James forgot the word ‘antlers’ and attempted to describe them as ‘you know, fork... head... prongs’ that James was bestowed his nickname.

XXXXXX

 

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” James said as he poked his wand to the crisp parchment.

 

Messrs Moony, Thumper,

Padfoot, & Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

Are proud to present:

The Marauders Map

 

“Wicked.” Peter stated.

“Yeah.” Remus agreed, a bit breathless.

“This has got to be, like, the top of that list.” James added.

“Oh yeah cool map definitely trumps Moony’s furry little problem.” Sirius said before kicking James in the shin to emphasize the point.

 

XXXXXX


	2. The Conversation at Dinner

 

XXXXXX

 

The great hall was packed with students all waiting in loud anticipation of the sorting ceremony and the awesome feast following it.

Lily had spent the majority of the trip to school in the prefects meeting and then patrolling the train and occasionally stopping to introduce herself to the first years, quell their fears, and explain a little about Hogwarts to them. She was starving, and excited to see if any of the children she’d met would be sorted into Gryffindor, her house. Finally the double doors at the end of the hall opened and Professor McGonagall led a herd of tiny first years down the center aisle and to the front of the room.

“When your name is called you will step up to the stool and I will place the Sorting hat onto your head.-” Lily tried not to zone out during the rest of the instructions, but as this was her sixth year hearing them it was difficult. She finally snapped out of it when she heard a loud cheer come from the Ravenclaw table, apparently they got the first student.

“Anifred, Mortima” was called next and the rhythm of the sorting ceremony began.

“Yaltz, Amelia” was called last to a loud “Gryffindor!” and an even louder cheer, which Lily gladly contributed too. Amelia was the 11th 1st year sorted into her house, (the 4th girl) and she seemed delighted, almost running to the table to join the rest of the students.

The hall quieted down together as Dumbledore stood.

“A few words of wisdom before our magnificent feast! The only bad question is the one not asked. Remember that.” He looked around at the hall of students, a stern set to his mouth but a twinkle in his eye. After what felt like eons to the hungry mass he lifted his arms “Enjoy!”

The empty table in front of Lily filled with food, roast duck, a rather impressive looking bean salad, mashed potatoes, cornbread, it all looked delicious, and she began to pile her plate.

After she had a few bites of food, Lily began to listen to the conversation her friends we’re having, obviously a continuation of the one on the train as it was still mostly about how everyone’s summers were, and what they thought classes would be like, and most importantly what everyone had gotten on their O.W.L.s

.

“What about you Lily, I’m sure you did great!” Tracey, one of Lily’s more recent friends asked.

“Four O’s. Four E’s and one stupid A” Lily started out brightly and finished with a bit of a grumble.

“That great Lily, what were they all in?” Tracey continued to question. Tracey was lovely because she always seemed to really care about what people had to say. Her Gryffindor personality came through though, as she was never satisfied with the first answer, and would poke and prod at someone until she’d heard everything.

“Oh, um the O’s were in potions, charms, DADA, and herbology. The E’s in Astronomy, history of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Transfiguration, and an A for Arithmancy.” Lily counted off on her fingers as she listed them”

“That’s amazing Lily!” Tracey announced!

“That's my girl, Determined and brilliant” Marlene bumped her shoulder into Lily’s. Lily’s responding smile quickly turned to a scowl as she heard Potter boasting to his friends who had somehow managed to sit only two people away from Lily (god bless Marlene for that).

“Five O’s! And four E’s” Lily gasped there was no way Potter had gotten a higher score the she had, he and his _marauder_ buddies barely payed attention in any of the classes they took. “Well done Remus! I knew all that studying would pay off”

“Oh shut it Prongs, you complained the entire time that I was being boring and quote; distinctly un marauder like.” Remus responded.

Lily let out a deep breath, Remus was well known to be the responsible one of the group. She supposed it wasn’t terrible if he had beaten her in one class.

“How sweet is that!” Tracy piped up ‘Mother Hen James is at it again, just as bad as last year.” She giggled, in a way that obviously was meant to catch the boys’ attention

“What is she on about?” Lily whispered to Marlene.

Marlene sighed, knowing how Lily felt about James this was probably not going to end well. “You see Lily, a lot of the girls in our year have noticed that James has certain mothering tendencies when it comes to his friends, which they find endearing.”

“There is nothing endearing about that.” Lily swiftly rebutted.

“Lily, he’s literally telling Sirius to eat his veggies.” Marlene said.

 

“Sirius if you want pudding you’d best finish all those green beans or so help me.”

“Fine, James!” Sirius responded by angrily shoveling a forkful of beans into his mouth “Merlin's beard, you’re worse than your mother!” He continued, while still chewing.

“And you would know eh mate.” Peter grinned at him.

“Mrs. Potter is a perfectly lovely woman and I respect her authority. Her son however just cares about my health, pointless to listen to him really.” Sirius responded to Peter's gibe.

“Padfoot, how on earth does that make any sense at all?” Remus asked.

“Just you wait till he starts in on your chocolate addiction Moony, then see how you feel about it!” Sirius shot back.

“GASP James would never!” Remus accompanied the verbal announcement with a dramatic hand to his forehead, a move Lily swore he picked up from Potter.

“He is right you know- vegetables have a lot of nutrients, some that even encourage healthy hair growth“ Peter added.

“Well Prongs didn’t bring up that crucial bit of information! I suppose if it’s my hair’s health in question, I must suffer though. Remmy-darling wouldn’t have anything to play with during history of magic otherwise. You’re a true friend Thumper.“

 

Lily humphed, “Arguing like preschoolers the lot of them” and decisively flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Tracy just sighed, the heel of her hand pushing her cheek out “Isn’t it sweet”

“Has anyone figured out where their ridiculous nicknames came from?” One of the other girls at the table asked.

“No, but it’s been going on for years, whatever inside joke started it, they probably don’t even remember anymore.” The girl’s friend replied.

“One of life’s great mysteries.” The boy sitting next to her chipped in.

“I’d sure love to unravel Black’s Mysteries if you know what I mean.” Tracy said, with a significant eyebrow raise.

Lily rolled her eyes and concentrated on finishing her meal before it got swapped out for dessert. Those boys were open books, short ones too, any mysteries they had were certain to be underwhelming. 

 

XXXXXX

 

Dessert finished up and Lily, with the help of the five other Gryffindor prefects (Katie, Raúl, Peter, Sidney, and Jordan), herded all of the Gryffindor’s up the seven flights of stairs to the common room.

Peter, she noticed, was actually doing a fair job of keeping the third and fourth years from wondering off, and not slacking off to chat with his friends. She supposed that Dumbledore must have chosen him to be her partner for a reason. And with the limited options of the now sixth year boys, It was sort of a toss up between him and Remus.

Lily glanced ahead of her a bit and spied the three other boys. Sirius was in the middle with his arms draped over the shoulders of the others, Remus had responded by putting an arm around his waist, while James was attempting to squirm out of the embrace.

“Well without the threat of OWLs hanging over our heads we should have plenty of free time, Any idea for the welcome prank for the firsties?” James turned to ask them.

“I don’t know mister I’ve been having marauding mischief withdrawals, why don’t you come up with one?” Remus prodded. 

“How about we transfigure some giant teddy bears in their house colors and set them up for when they get back from classes on Monday?” James suggested, quietly enough that Lily had to strain to hear it. Lily had to jump into the conversation, she could not, in good conscious, let Potter give all the first years teddy bears, that would probably end up changing into spiders when hugged - or something equally as terrible - and traumatize them after the first day of class!

“You’re despicable Potter,” Lily spoke up. “and I won’t let you torture impressionable first years like that!”

“Have you got a fear of stuffed bears Evans? Because It sounded like a rather wonderful idea if you ask me.” Sirius snapped back at her.

“Ha knowing you lot, the bears would be charmed to sing all night, or explode when you touch them or something!” Lily bit.

“That’s a bit horrific Lily, are you feeling alright? Or has being too close to me given you a fever?” James asked the concern in his voice changing to cockyness as his hand ruffled his hair.

“Don’t think so highly of yourself James, the only thing I feel around you is nausea.” Lily responded, entering a mindset to have yet another verbal spar with the conceded boy.

“You know most people refer to that queasy feeling as 'butterflies in their stomach', it's associated with falling in love.” James fell back to walk next to her.

“You’re so shallow there’s not enough substance to fall into at all. People probably trip and keep walking with barely a thought as to what it was.”  

“One day you’re gonna faceplant.” James responded, before “Anyway have to go, lots of plans for the evening. Ta!” and he hurried off.

“Fuck” Lily muttered, he had distracted her from reprimanding them. “You’re not allowed in the other houses’ dorm rooms Potter!” she shouted. Lily pretended she didn’t hear him laugh.

 

XXXXXX


	3. The Marauders' Disappearing Act

 

XXXXXX

 

It started really slowly over the next couple of days. Lily would remember the conversation from dinner and glance up and look around whatever room she was in, before realizing she was looking for the group of 6th year boys, and quickly get back to work. A week in, during one rather long charms class, she caught herself no less than 8 times! Which was absolutely ridiculous! It wasn’t like they moved or went anywhere, the were in class for Merlin’s sake! And anyway it wasn’t like she cared!

Currently Lily was sitting in the common room, working on a potions essay, and trying desperately not to think about it.  The four boys had disappeared after dinner and she hadn’t seen them since. Just as she was finishing the last inch, the portrait hole opened and a group of boys walked in. If Lily hadn’t already been anticipating their arrival she probably wouldn’t have noticed them. They were quiet, and strangely small, like they we’re trying (and succeeding) not to be noticed. Lily immediately felt herself tense, were they planning something? Or had something happened? The boys filled up the stairs, first James, then Sirius, then Remus, then Peter, they all seemed rather solum. Lily tried to put it out of here head. When that failed to work she instead resolved to talk to them about it in morning, if they still looked as beaten down after breakfast.

But breakfast came and the only sign of the marauders that Lily could suss out was a gossip chain about stuffed animals that had mysteriously appeared in all the first year dorms. That was the end of the story as well, each first year found the animal of one of the other houses mascots on their beds. They didn’t explode, weren’t bewitched, or charmed, or transfigured, just rather cute little badgers, lions, snakes, and eagles. Outside of the fact no one got their own house’s animal, it appeared to be perfectly harmless, and downright kind.

Marlene sat down next to her “Have you seen the new soft toys the first years get? Totally Jealous! Wonder why they started the tradition?”

“What? what tradition?” Lily hadn’t heard anything about this from anyone but Potter.

“That’s what everyone is saying it is, a welcome gift to all the firsties.” Marlene responded.

This was making Lily’s head spin. Had Potter lied about pranking having known about the new tradition, just to mess with her? That didn’t sound like something he’d do. Then again, neither did innocently gifting all the first years with soft animals. Lily pondered the situation all though potions and made it through the first half of Herbology before realizing that half the marauders we’re missing. Neither Sirius nor Remus had been in class at all, and James and Peter still seemed a bit too morose to have just finished pulling off a gifting prank. She puzzled as she finished her work and then hurried to catch up with Potter after class.

“James!” she’d caught him halfway along the path back to the castle.

“Lily, how can I be of service today?” He put on his usual grin, though it seemed a bit lackluster.

“I was just wondering-” Here Lily stopped herself, did she really have a right to know why half his squad was missing?  “- if you really were the one behind all the stuffed animals?”

“Oh, yeah that was our work. Good idea switching the houses up huh? We thought it would promote house unity or something.” James’ smile looked a bit more genuine.

“Well I’m shocked, I had no idea you could do anything that didn’t have some sort of selfish reasoning behind it.”

“I think you’d be rather surprised if you got to know me a little.” James puffed up a bit.

Peter tugged on his sleeve, “You can flirt another day Prongs - we’ve got to get sandwiches and trade off.”

“Right Thumper. Sorry I can’t stay and chat longer Lily, but today’s a bad day.” The two boys hurried off, but not before she thought she heard Peter say;

“Bit of an understatement really.”

James didn’t show up for the last three classes of the day, Remus made an appearance in the class right after lunch, but he was gone after that. Peter made it all the way though, but was gone the moment the bell rang and no one saw hide nor hare of the marauders for the rest of the day.

 

XXXXXX

 

From then on Lily couldn’t help but notice little things about James and his accomplices.

James and Sirius are the loudest, but if they’re gone Remus and Peter have no problem stepping up and commanding attention. Lily can’t remember when that started to happen, those two seemed to have blossomed in the last few years. She’d only noticed because the pair had stormed down the stairs, loudly enough to startle the students who had begun to drift off over their textbooks

Remus announced “One o’clock on a Tuesday morning is a perfectly reasonable time to be asleep.”

“As one of your esteemed prefects I suggest you all go tuck youselves in nice and tight” Peter pulled out his wand and started casting a mild shaking charm at the chairs of the students, to further convince them to seek the shelter of their own beds.

“Besides studying sticks much better on a full night of sleep” Remus cajoled.

“Off you trot!” and most of the students yielded to their points, or to their general disturbance. Lily had been getting a good start on her runes reading and was less than thrilled at the interruption.

“What on earth do the pair of you think you’re doing?” Lily stomped up to them.

“Just trying to ensure the good health of our fellow Gryffindors I assure you Lily.” Remus placated.

“I’m sure. Did James put you up to this?” Lily needed to know what scheme they we’re attempting this time

“Why on earth would you assume that?” Peter inquired.

“You two don’t tend to make scenes unless it’s for some ulterior motive. So spill.” Lily wasn’t going to back down.

“Lily cross my heart this was all us, free will, wanting to make sure no one was burning themselves out two weeks into the school year.” Remus smiled sincerely.

“Well if that’s true then where are the lesser half?” Lily smirked. Peter pointed over to the corner of the common room, where the two boys in question had passed out over their own books. “Oh.” and, cheeks flushing, Lily hurried upstairs.

 

XXXXXX

 

Lilly finished her Transfiguration essay, it had taken her longer than she wanted, as the concept was rather advanced. She’d gotten stuck on a few different areas of the theory when trying to explain it in the 20 inches they were supposed to turn in. She considered pulling out her arithmancy, but gave it up quickly when she glanced around the room to see if she could spot the marauders. Not here again, they’d been conspicuously absent since late afternoon.

She checked the library and on the way, a couple of empty classrooms. Wandered down to the main hall, peeked out the window at the quidditch pitch, glanced into the infirmary. Lily even made a quick pass by the Slytherin dorm hallway. She didn’t catch a glimpse of them anywhere. Which was odd.

Lily dismissed the fact that she now knew their usual haunts, being passively observative as she was, it was natural to remember where they spent their time. And important, if they ever pulled off a prank and she needed to hunt them down.

Resigning herself to not finding the boys that evening, she decided to take a quick stroll out to the lake and enjoy the warmth before the quickly approaching October cold snap started. She made it out to the willow tree, the one that the forsome like to relax under on long weekends, and realized she had been hoping to bump into them.

 

XXXXXX

 

“It’s the most surreal thing I think I’ve ever witnessed.” Lily began.

“Are we talking about the marauders again Lily?” Sidney complained.

“Hey I tried so hard to ignore them when all anyone wanted to do was talk about them, and now that I actually do want to talk about them, no one cares!” The pair we’re sitting in the library, under the guise of studying, but they had mostly just been talking.

“It’s not my fault that you’re so late to the party, besides you don’t even want to talk about what makes them interesting, all you want to talk about is Potter’s, and I quote, twisted and flexible sense of ethics.”

“Is that not interesting?”

“Unless we’re talking about how un-ethical his shoulders are - yes.”

“You’re hopeless Sydney.”

 

XXXXXX

 

It’s the second of October when Lily has her epiphany. The Marauders actually really care about each other, a lot more than just bonding over their dumb pranks has gone on, there's true affection and brotherhood. When they aren’t being loud, trying to be the center of attention, they almost disappear, just blend into the background. And apparently, if the number of times she'd thought she'd caught them doing something terrible only to learn that it had some sort of positive twist to it meant anything, they actually had some sense of morality. They hadn’t even pulled off a single obnoxious prank this year. (They'd pranked of course, but it was always something sort of nice, like making Oswald walk around with his pants on the outside of his trousers and the word 'skank' written on the butt, after everyone found out he'd been cheating on his girlfriend with two other girls.) Maybe, Lily thought, they were finally, sort of, growing up.

Of course that jinxed it.

That night at dinner some commotion began at the far end of the Gryffindor table. Lily looked down to see a bunch of first years had turned neon orange and acidic green.

Lily turned toward James, two people over, and on the opposite side of the table to ask what exactly the hell they’d done. But all that came out was;

“Peas and carrots taste like glue, but remove the others’ hue.” Lily realized what she’d said, and leaned across the table towards him eyes narrowing.

James winced a little and responded “Might see if a bite of cornbread solves your riddle problem.”

“Bubbles come with beef stew, then a sip of a pumpkin brew.” Lily snapped at him. James just winked at her, took a swig of pumpkin juice, and then burped a little stream of bubbles.   

She looked along the table and saw that a well as bubbles and the orange and green dye job, a number of Gryffindors’ hair had begun to grow rapidly.

Lily found the plate of cornbread squares and quickly took a bite out of one. Her scalp began to tingle. Then Peter leaned around Tracy and Remus and apologetically informed her;

“If you are speaking rhyme, a square of bread will stop the crime.” Followed by, “If you chose the non-meat stew, you might have a new hair do.”

Lily screeched. She looked around the rest of the hall. None of the other tables were having any issues, and both Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall seemed to be watching the table equal parts resigned and amused.

Diner was almost halfway over when a Lily looked up again from growling silently at her plate, to notice that the middle section of the table appeared to have remedied their ailments. The message was passed down and finally a group of five friends sitting next to Lily and her friends, turned to tell them that apparently one of the third years solved the riddle.

One of the girls handed on a bit of parchment which had what looked like a flow chart on it.

Jordan, the other fifth year prefect, grabbed it. After looking at the page for a moment they said “So to start we have to eat some stew. If you’re green you want to make sure the bite has got carrots, and if you’re orange then make sure you have peas. If you’ve not been turned a color then make sure you have both.”

Everyone within earshot of them did as told.  

“Alright. Next if you had the beef stew, you need to eat some grapes, Or, if you had the mushroom and potato you need to have a bit of the garlic cauliflower. Oh, wait! Unless you’re hair is long and you’re rhyming, in that case switch.”

Lily dropped the cauliflower like she’d been burned and instead reached for a grape.

“So then it looks like if you just had a grape, or if you’ve had the cauliflower and still have long hair-”

The whole process took about ten minutes to get through, but eventually they we’re able to pass the cheat sheet on. Lily offered, and pointedly stood up and walked passed the marauders to hand it off to the group of seventh years at the very end of the table.  

 

Lily cornered them after dinner, before they could sneak off and congratulate themselves.  

“I demanded to know what on earth you we’re thinking!” Lily growled.

“Oh she demands it.” Sirius mocked. Lily pulled out her wand and Sirius stepped back a little bit of apology in his eyes.

“I  overheard some Ravenclaws saying that Gryffindors couldn't solve a riddle even if their lives depended on it.” Remus began.

“Some stuck up third years placating a firstie who was worried their common room could get broken into” Peter added.

“And so of course we decided to prove them wrong.” James smiled.

“By making our supper turn us green, and forcing us to talk in rhyme? What if no one had been able to solve it!” Lily was barely holding back from jinxing them all.

“Don’t worry Lily we had a lot of precautions in place” James said

“And anyway we knew they’d solve it” Peter tried to sound nonchalant but he kept his eye trained on her wand.

“Have a little faith Evans!“ Sirius had a bit of his bravado back. Lily glared at him, and then in quick succession cast a rather advanced charm spell that caused each of them to feel like they were hanging upside down. And turned and walked away to the sound of their pleas.

  
XXXXXX


	4. Study Budies

 

XXXXXX

 

Lily was delighted that the prank had seemed to cure her of the odd  _ interest _ in the marauder's activities she had contracted during the beginning of the term. It had been just over two weeks and she’d been able to entirely forget about her little epiphany, and focus on school. 

“I swear it’s just cruel for Flitwick to have a test on a Friday!” Lily heard a distinctly glum sounding Black from the study table next to hers.  

“I can’t believe that after six years of taking his class we’re all just as stumped as we we’re when we started” An equally morose whine came from Remus.

Lily scoffed. Loud enough to be overheard by the group of boys. 

“Got something to share Evans?” 

“As if I’d have anything to say to you four delinquents.” Lily said over her shoulder trying to drown them out.

“Well that was something” Peter pointed out. 

“Ugh!” Lily huffed.

“Lily are you still upset over that prank, it’s been three weeks!” Lily could imagine the doe eyed look on his face.

“It’s been two. And yes, of course I am!” Lily turned her head to glare at him. 

“Why?” James asked. 

“What do you mean why?! It was immature, disruptive and uncouth!” Lily said, pointedly turning back to her work.

“Sound like a compliment to me boys” Sirius added. 

“Besides that third year girl who solved it-” Remus began to try and pacify lily’s anger

“Beth” James Supplied

“-was ecstatic for the next three days! Surely the confidence boost she got makes up for some of it.” Remus finished. 

“Everyone had fun” Peter said

“Except you” Sirius moaned. 

“I’m trying to study and this is a library, so please, shut it.” Lily was ignoring their logic, just because one little third year had a good couple of days after the prank did not make up for the fact it was immature and potentially dangerous. 

“Are you perchance studying for the charms test?” James tried to keep Lily’s attention.

“Well seeing as it’s in two days I should think that would be obvious” Lily said. There was a pause in the conversation as she heard some scuffling accompanied by a quiet but clear ‘no!’ And a few ‘come - on!’s and  ‘please’s before the boys settled down again.

“Hey Lily” James staged-whispered to get her attention. Lily pretended she didn’t hear him.

“Would you maybe be interested in joining our study group” James voice was a bit louder.

“Why on earth would I want to do that?” Lily was truly bewildered. 

“Because you don’t want to see your fellow Gryffindors fail?” he tried.

“Ha! I think you lot would need a lot more that my help for that.” Lily mocked.

“Oh we’re not that hopeless Evans.” Sirius snarled. 

“And what would be in it for me?” Lily asked

“Um I could help you study for the transfiguration test that’s right before Halloween?” James offered. 

“Oh I’m sure the great James Potter would be a load of help in that class. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Professor McGonagall give you even a tiny grain of praise in her class.” Lily said

“Okay that’s fair but-” James began before;

“Potter I really doubt I need your help.” Lily cut him off.

“Is there anything we could do to convince you to help us study for this test Lily?” Peter asked.

“I doubt it.” Lily said 

“Well it was worth a shot Prongs” Remus said

“Nah, it wasn’t.” James actually sounded really put out. 

“She probably said no because she isn’t good enough to help us anyway.” Sirius said a bit louder than necessary. Lily knew he was goading her, but it was kind of working.

“To much of a challenge,” Sirius continued, “I get it, she’s scared to admit she’s not as good as she thinks she is.”

Damn it, Lily thought, “Fine. I’ll help, but in exchange - no more pranks.” she bartered, 

“For how long?” James asked, a small amount of hope creeping its way back into his voice. 

“No more as in ever. At all. Ever.” Lily spelled it out for them.

“What no!” All four boys said almost in unison. 

“It’s not like it’s that hard. Just be a decent human being! In fact I think I’m getting the short end of the stick.” Lily said. The marauders just stared at her, still appalled that her request had been so brutal. After a few minutes of being silently stared at she huffed, “Well when you fail the test don’t blame me.”

“Ha we won’t fail - just watch!” Sirius exclaimed and all four boys pulled their books closer and began studying again.

“Fascinating” Lily said dryly, turning back to her own book.

 

XXXXXX

 

It was another week later in the common room when Lily was once again distracted by the marauders. They all had their wands out and a heap of fabric scraps in front of them. Surprisingly it wasn’t noise that alerted her to their presence. They we’re all absolutely silent their wands moving in rectangle patterns as they practiced silently transforming the fabric into pillows and couches. What amazed Lily was that they already had a stack of somewhat comfortable, if rather ugly, looking pillows littered around them. She knew it was easier to do the magic when there was a material to transform instead of conjuring it from nothing but even still, she had had major problems trying to silently transfigure boxes out of twigs, the size difference was already difficult, and on top of that doing it silent made it all the more complex. 

 

“Prongs I give up - its silent magic, can’t you just transform both of ours in class?” Peter pleaded. 

“That’s cheating!” shockingly Lily and James said at the exact same time. James Immediately turned to look at her eyes wide.

“Trying to join our study group once again Lily?” Sirius smirked. 

“Why would I?” Lily scoffed. 

“Well for starters we all pulled O’s on Flitwick's test.” Remus piped up. 

“What? How?” Lily yelped. 

“We studied Lily, I thought that that would have been apparent given that we were in the library when you began to bug us.” Remus snarkily replied.

“I can’t imagine you four being serious for long enough to actually study well enough to do that good on a test!” Lily said, shock still evident in her voice. 

“Oh Lily surely by now you know I’m always Sirius.” Sirius winked.

“That joke got old six years ago.” Lily responded.

 

XXXXXX

 

Lily had decided to be honest with herself, she wanted to know what was up with the marauders. Six times in the past week she had caught them studying, twice when she tried to look for them the had been nowhere, and a shocking dozen times she had noticed that James Potter seemed to be mothering the rest of his  _ pack _ . There had to be something going on, clearly they were hiding some sort of secret, if the random disappearances meant anything. And their reputation of being troublemakers was just as strong as ever. Lily had deduced that they acted rowdy when they wanted to be seen, so that when they turned off their showmanship it made it much easier to hide whatever it was they were keeping secret. After all who would suspect the funny, charismatic, ever (apparently) present Marauders of hiding anything? 

 

Lily hated not knowing something. It was part of why she did so well in school, her thirst for new information was strong, and of course it was coming into play now. So after thinking though a few plans Lily decided that the best way to learn exactly what the marauders were hiding was to use her womanly charms and flirt the truth out of James. It was a bit cruel, she knew, but the resources was there and she knew it would work. So she began to make a plan, a scholarly plan, and definitely not any sort of scheme. Lily, of course, did not  _ scheme.  _

 

After arithmancy on a Tuesday in the middle of November Lily put her plan into action. She bent over her bag, trying to slowly pack up her things, and using her hair as a shield, undid the top few buttons on her blouse. She’d spilled something on the end of her tie at the end of lunch so she'd already taken it off and stored it in her bag. 

“James!” she called out to him just as he reached the door of the room, she had hung back, hoping they could talk without the others around. All four boys turned in surprise at her calling out to him. He walked over toward her, and the other three stayed by the door. 

“Um I was hoping we could talk, quickly, um, alone?” she asked. James looked shocked but nodded, and quickly motioned to the others to go on without him. They left and Lily let out a deep breath. 

“So I’ve been thinking more about your study group,” She began, twisting a strand of hair around her finger, “and I’ve decided I’m interested, but I’ve got a couple questions first.”

“Seriously?! That’s great Lily! Yeah anything you want to know, ask away!” James eyes seemed to be dancing in delight. 

“Well first of all, when do you study? It’s just, I haven’t noticed you lot back in the library regularly, Is there a schedule?” Lily knew she had to start subtly, or he’d realize she was up to something. 

“Oh! Um, not particularly.” James explained as he hopped up so he was sitting on a desk, “We sort of do it whenever we’ve got the time.” he leaned back a bit, in a way that he must have thought looked cool. “Some nights just don’t work very well, and we’re all pretty busy with our own projects so...” He trailed off.

“Oh, I’m just used to a bit more I dunno, structure, I suppose. What are you all doing that you can’t meet up regularly?” This was going well, he’d just handed her a way to ask what they we’re up to whenever they weren’t being obnoxious. 

“Well I’ve got quidditch practice, and Peter is part of the gobblestones club and he’s got perfect stuff, and Sirius is working on some ‘super secret project’ with professor Burbage, you know, just stuff” James explained, sitting up a bit and holding up four fingers as he’d ticked off the extracurriculars, before returning his hands to their position on the tabletop, his arms supporting his weight as he lounged. 

“Oh” Lily sighed, that was not the scandal she’d been expecting. She purposefully added a little pout, cheering internally when James’ eyes locked onto her lips. “And of course we mustn't forget all that time that goes into planning your dumb little pranks” 

“You’d be surprised actually, how naturally the ideas come to us.” James shot her a blinding smile, and Lily desperately ignored the fluttery feeling in her chest. 

“I’m sure.” Lily rolled her eyes.

“It’s a gift.” James winked.

“So then” Lily decided to get her plan back on track “If you all are so busy, how am I meant to join you when you study? Is there a secret meeting room and a password? What’s the deal?”

“Once I tell you you have to promise not to share it.” James said.

“Wait, is there actually a secret room?” Lily didn’t really expect that.

“Of course, I am a man of many secrets after all.” James said. 

Lily forced out a cute giggle, “Oh really? Go on then, let’s hear one.” She leaned forward a bit as well, both to look intrigued, and to let a bit more of her cleavage show. 

“Oh, I. um. yeah.” James stuttered a little bit, he was staring intently at her hairline and not blinking. Lily gave herself a mental pat on the back, and fluttered her eyelashes. James hand slipped off the table and he wobbled a bit to the side, but it seemed to shake him out of his head. “If I told you Lily, then I’d have to kill you.”

Lily hummed, “No actually, I don’t think you would. I’m awfully good at keeping secrets.” and smiled. Realizing she might be letting her actually motives for having this conversation show, she jumped back to her cover story. “So then, why don’t you tell me this secret meeting room, and when your next study session is, and I’ll consider dropping by.”

“Alright, you win, tonight at seven head to the far west wing, and on the fourth floor right by where that fake door is - the one with the doorknob that bites, you know?” James paused and Lily nodded. “Right, the portrait two to the left is of two ladies playing cards, ask them if they have any threes.” James hopped off the table.

“Oh, Okay then.” and, realizing that they really needed to rush to get to their next class on time, they rather quickly grabbed their bags and headed out into the hall.  

"Say, what made you change your mind?" James asked as he trailed a bit behind her down the corridor. 

"Oh. I er, I overhead a some of the Ravenclaws complaining about Professor McGonagall not giving out house points to the top transfiguration student in our year." Lily said. She shot James a glance out of the corner of her eye. “You wouldn’t happen to know why that is, would you?” 

James looked back at Lily, a slight grin at the corners of his mouth, but a pensive look in his eyes. As they reached their next class neither of them said anything, but both Lily and James knew that the other had more information than they were meant to. 

XXXXX


	5. Secret the First

XXXXXX

 

“That was very, odd. Right?” James asked for what must have been the 5th time since finishing his description of the encounter with Lily.

 

After classes James called for an Emergency Marauder Meeting, held of course in the Emergency Marauder Meeting Room. The room was accessible only by waiting on a particular moving staircase to stop, where it apparently lead to nowhere. The bottom step hung in midair about a meter away from a rather tall portrait, which was hinged on the bottom, so when it swung down it created a landing leading into a little corridor.

 

XXXXXX

 

This room was the 16th secret room the Marauders had found together. In January of their first year James had made the observation that some of the staircases seemed to stop in peculiar places. They had spent a few evenings just riding different staircases up and down trying to chart their patterns. Once that had been more or less done they’d noted the ones that stopped where there was apparently no landing and included a description of the portraits they stopped at. Over the next few weekends several hours were spent in the library looking up each portrait to try and get some information about where it was painted, and by whom, and any other facts they could find.

 

“Ahhhh!!! I’m tired of the library, and if my mother knew I was studying art history she’d be delighted” Sirius moaned, after nearly a month of library weekends.

“Well what would you rather do? Spend another few evenings riding the same staircase up and down, yelling random things at a picture every time you pass it, hoping it will open?” Remus had asked, with the intention of sounding sarcastic, it apparently had not been communicated very well though as Sirius immediately sat up, eyes brightening.

“That’s an option?”

“No, Sirius, I really doubt that -” Before Remus could explain his doubts in any greater length he was immediately pulled out of his chair by the hand gripping his wrist. He was pulled down the aisle James and Peter had barricaded themselves in and lightly kicking both their shins made an announcement.

“New plan. I am done with having the life sucked out of me in this horrid place so we’re going to try a more practical approach. Chop chop, keep up boys, we’ve got some passwords to guess.”

 

XXXXXX

 

“Like out of character _weird._ ” James stressed his point.

“Yes Prongs we all agree Lily showing any interest in you is super weird.” Remus confirmed.

“I mean maybe she just wants to join our study group?” Peter pondered.

“After last time?! did you forget” - Sirius used his (impressively) accurate Lily impression -  “‘ _stop pranking_ _forever!’_ And now she just wants to join, no conditions whatsoever? You’re bonkers mate.” he concluded.

“So you think she knows anything, like, specific?” Remus questioned, biting at the nail of his pointer finger.

“No it didn’t really seem like it, just more like she knew there was stuff that she didn’t know?” James said, “She mentioned the transfiguration thing, but I don’t know if she really believed she’d come to the right conclusion.”

“Okay well that’s less bad, we just make sure that she thinks our grades, and therefore, our secret genius abilities, is our big secret? Right?” Sirius reached over to grab Remus’s hand away from his mouth and held it tightly between both of his own.

“That seems like the most logical conclusion” Remus agreed.

“Great. Great, so um how do we do that?” James asked.

“I dunno, actually earn some points in class?” Peter suggested.

“No that would let everyone know, and then it’s not actually secret anymore.” Sirius pointed out

“We could just tell her tonight.” Remus said  
“Well it’s not as fun, but admittedly convenient.” James agreed.

“Really, that’s the plan?” Sirius asked, “Can’t imagine that going well: ‘Hey Evans glad you could join our secret study sessions’ ‘ _you mean you’re glad I’m here so you can take advantage of my brilliance_ ’ ‘well actually it’s the other way around m’dear, we’re all tip top in most classes just want to keep our reputations intact so we hide our total genies’ ‘ _oh fascinating I believe you entirely tell me more_ ’”

“Fair point Pads, well maybe we can just drop hints ‘til she catches on.” Remus posed.  

“We’d have to be really subtle, if she starts digging she won’t stop. Very determined to get to the bottom of things she is.” James added. “Not that that’s a bad thing, maybe she’ll figure out what a noble and gallant friend I am to you numpties and finally fall for me.”

“We’ll I’m not certain it’s wise for her to learn all our secrets Prongs, she’s such a goodie two shoes that I wouldn’t be surprised if she ran off to the Minister for Magic himself the minute she thinks something is off.” Sirius said.

“And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be subtle around her.” Remus tacked on.

“Well not _everything_ everything obviously. Just enough for her to fall hopelessly in love with me”

“I mean that’s why we have the list in the first place.” Peter said. “Levels of security, and all that. Reveal what we need to to keep the rest hidden.”

“I thought it was because of torture…” Remus drawled sarcastically, giving Sirius a pointed look.

“Oh, I’m sorry do you remember that Lily is a chams expert, or did you forget that Tuesday in fourth year already?” Sirius bit back

“I _had,”_ Peter said “until just now. It me took literal months to forget the feeling of my hands and feet in the wrong places.” Peter finished with a shudder, mirrored by Remus and Sirius.

“Merlin I lover her.” James sighed, a slightly chaotic gleam in his eye.

 

XXXXXX

 

Six thirty rolled around and Lily walked to the head of the corridor James had told her held the secret room. Being punctual was polite, and if she happened to be slightly hidden by the suit of armor… and a cloaking spell… and happened to overhear the conversation the boys had when they didn’t know she was around, well that wasn’t her fault. Mere coincidence.

Seven o’clock rolled around and Lily was both stiff from hiding, quite cold, due to how drafty the corridors got in mid november, and irritated that the boys were late.

Seven o seven and she heard footsteps and then distantly,

“...ing late. If she gets on us you’re telling her it’s all your fault.” James insisted.

“Prongs you literally tried on every shirt we own. Collectively, the four of us. Every shirt.”

That was not endearing Lily told herself. Holding her breath she watched as the boys rounded the corner, still hoping to hear something more interesting than James very well documented crush on her. Just as they fell in line with her hiding spot the marauders all stopped for a moment and in sync looked directly at Lily and winked, then kept walking down to the portrait.   

Bemused, Lily canceled her disillusionment and walked down to the portrait the boys had just gone through.

Two old ladies sat together smiling and playing a relaxed game of cards.

“Excuse me, do you have any Threes?”

“Oh my you’re quite a lovely young lady.” One woman announced.

“Yes makes me wonder what you’ll be doing with the four troublemakers inside.” The second woman said with a hint of innuendo in her voice

“And what you did to get the password from them.” The first said with an exaggerated wink, before swinging open.

“Lily darling glad you could make it.” James was lounging casually against a round desk set off to one side of a room that somewhat resembled a corner of the Gryffindor common room. There was a fireplace along the left wall that filled the space with a warmth Lily was too grateful for. A few large armchairs were pulled up around it, one of which was being occupied by Peter, and another held four rucksacks, full of books.

“What is this room? And how on earth do you know about it?” She asked, forgetting to reign in her interest.

“Oh Evans, that’s a story for another day. Along with how we knew exactly where you were hiding out in the corridor. What were you hoping to do by the way?” Sirius smirked. He was hanging his cloak on a rack by the entrance to the room, just to Lily’s left, and gestured to take hers as well.

Lily blushed “Oh just thought it would be a bit of fun to spook you a bit. Taste of your own medicine?”

“Was that a statement or a question?” Remus teased. He was pulling a few books off a shelf along the back wall, that actually contained no books on it. She starred as he pulled a fifth book off the empty shelf, and seemingly out of mid air and added it to the pile in his arms. Lily stared for a long moment before James grabbed the attention of the room with a hand clap.

“We should get started, Thumper’s got prefect duties at ten.” James pulled out his wand and pointed it at a footstool he’d pulled up to the table, and with a quick and complicated twist and pull, the stool transfigured into a matching chair to the four around the table.

Lily shook her head at how much she was processing, and accompanied by Peter’s groan as he pulled himself out of the armchair, headed over to the table. James watched as she pat down the seat of the chair and then gingerly took a seat.

“Comfy eh? One of my specialties if i do say so myself.” He boasted.

“Stop flirting and start tutoring man, we’ve got a hard deadline and we won’t have time to meet up this weekend.” Sirius scolded before sliding into the seat between Remus and Peter.

Lily blinked, stored the information about them having plans this coming weekend for later analysis, and looked toward James, more than a hint of doubt present in the downturn of her mouth and the shrewd look in her eyes.

James cleared his throat and pointedly not looking in her direction began “Right so uh. Still working on conjuring complicated mammals. And trying to get ahead on the doing it silently. Right.”

 

XXXXXX

 

Just over two hours later and Lily was honestly flabbergasted. She had never been able to silently cast a transfiguration spell higher than a fourth year level of difficulty, it wasn’t even required to do until late in seventh year. And only a few of the N.E.W.T. transfiguration practicals required it. And right in front of her, without having to say a word, sat an adorable teacup pig. Because of James Potter. Fuck.

“Yes Lily!” James reached over, and right before going in for a hug, changed his mind and held out his hand for a high five.

Eyes still wide Lily turned and lightly, slowly, returned the high five. Distantly she was aware of the other three marauders trying, horribly, to hold back giggles and smug looks.

“So,” Remus, first to regain composure “Interested in joining our study group now?”

“I can show you my qualifications, if you’d like, coincidentally I brought my O.W.L. scores with me.”  

Lily looked around the room at them, all looking at her with a bit of nerves masked by a combination of genuine interest in their eyes and too smug smirks. She shook herself back into the moment.

“Actually, yes Sirius I would be interested in your qualifications. I know what James can do, now, and I’ve got a pretty good guess as to what the others might attempt to contribute, but what on earth do you bring to the table?” Sure they were maybe smarter than they let on. But that didn’t mean they didn’t still drive her mad. They were still the same idot prankster boys she’d known for six and a half years. Nothing new. And she just wanted to know exactly how smart they were. Because this was it. What they were hiding. For their reputation. So that they maintained their cool elusive prackster reputation. No Lily wasn’t convinced, but she was willing to play along, for now.

With a flick of his wrist Sirius summoned a slip of paper from the bag in the chair and after a dramatic pause he handed it over.

Lilly glanced down at the paper, and then at the rest of the boys, she registered all of them watching her intently. And then a split second after honest to Merlin does a full fledged double take at the scores.

Astronomy - Outstanding

Charms - Outstanding

Defence Against the Dark Arts - Outstanding

Muggle studies - Outstanding

Transfiguration - Outstanding

Herbology - Exceeds Expectations

Potions  - Exceeds Expectations

History of Magic - Acceptable

 

“Oh.” is her only response, followed by “Are you still taking Astronomy?”

“Yeah, actually. I really love it. Honestly took me awhile to be okay with that, with my family and all. But i do enjoy it”

“Huh.” Again at a loss for words.

“Lily?” James asks, tentative.

“Huh?” again, nothing to say

“Why don’t we sit for a moment, Thumper has to get to his patrol, and I’m sure Moony and Padfoot wouldn’t mind going back to the dorms by themselves for a little while.”

“Huh.” she nods. The three aforementioned boys take their leave, and the silence, surprisingly comfortable, hangs over the room for a few minutes.

 

“So-” James eventually attempts

“So.” Lily agrees.

“I assume you might have a few questions?”

“A few.” Lily agrees, again

“Any one you’d like to start with? Or shall I just guess?”

“Um, the bookshelf?” Lily picked the first thing that came to mind

“Oh, yeah, should have known that would be the thing you’d go for first.” James chuckles a bit. “This room is I think technically attached to the library in some way. So the books come right from the shelves there, all you have to do is know the call number. Which is why Remus always has to grab them.”

Lily was so intrigued, and temporarily thoroughly distracted by this information. “That is Fascinating. Doesn’t it alert the checkout system though, I thought the door was spelled?”

“Well that’s why we assume the room is attached to the library. We haven’t ever triggered anything. And we’ve ‘borrowed’ a ton of books. Restricted ones even.”

“James!”

“Well maybe I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“All you have to know is the call number?”

“Yeah, um, please don’t tell anyone?” james begged.

“I won’t if you don’t” Lily said walking to the bookcase and pulling a book of the shelf. “I’ve wanted to read this since third year.” Lily opened the book to the first page, and started reading, absorbed immediately.

“Dear Merlin, I love you.”

“What?”

“Nothing, I mean, what book is that?”

“Oh,” Lily blushed, “it’s about blood charms.”

“What?!”

“I just find it fascinating. They are so advanced, and can go terribly wrong, very inadvisable to use. But, with everything that’s been happening recently, You-Know-Who and all I, I just thought it might be, good, to, er, know about.” Lily blushed deeply, and made eye contact wilt James.

“Well, if you ever want to know use the room, you know how to get in. Although I should warn you every now and then the card you need to ask for changes. It’s been 3 of clubs for a while, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it changes soon.”

“How on earth did you find this room anyway? What was it used for?”

“Oh, well we found it our second year I think? Hard to remember, since we’ve found, a fair few. I honestly can’t remember who found it. Though I know it wasn’t me. Sirius was the one who guessed the password though. Probably flirted with the portait to get a hint” James ended with a small smile. “Peter recons it used to be an old teachers lounge, or a club room of sorts. Though why it would need access to the library is anyone's guess.”

“Humm.” Lily took a moment to ponder this info, before asking her next question on the seemingly never ending list of puzzles she was trying to discover. “And why exactly do you all hide your grades? Literally everyone thinks you all are laxidasical pranksters with no goals in life and a large part of the reason Gryffindor hasn’t won the house cup in a few years.”

“Oh well, I mean, we want to be cool?”

“Was that a question Potter?” Lily teased

“I mean, look, I’m going to be honest with you Lily, probably more honest than the boys would want me to be.”

“Oh?” this was unexpected to Lily, James stripping away his public persona and talking honestly with her.

“If we put on this persona - Bad boy pranksters, idiots, then we appear fairly shallow. Like young boys who don’t have things to hide. And Lily, seriously, you can’t freak out, but we have some things, just a few, that are important to us to hide.” James’ tone was sollum, and Lily was equal parts nervous, shocked, and determined by how how much she didn’t know about these boys.

 

XXXXXX   

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just out of curiosity, is anyone interested in learning the O.W.L scores I gave to all the marauders? Also, anyone interested in reading about the full list of secrets I've created? or just the more close to cannon ones? trying to figure out how detailed I should be. I hope you are enjoying the story and I'd really like to know what everyone's favorite part of the story is? Plot? Characterizations? descriptions of magic/locations? want to know whats working, and what I can improve on. Thanks for reviews/criticism.


	6. The Heart of Hogwarts

XXXXXX

 

In bed that night Lily recalled the Marauders upcoming weekend plans that would apparently be distracting them from several good hours of study time. It wasn’t a hogsmeade weekend, as that wasn’t scheduled until the first weekend of December. And while there was a Quidditch game it was Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw. And with a how great the Hufflepuff team had been performing this year, even if the boys decided to attend it wouldn’t take up more than a few hours Saturday afternoon. 

A prank was of course the most logical solution, so she’d certainly be keeping an eye out for that. As a Prefect it was practically required for her to stay vigilant. But somehow, she couldn’t help but think it might have something to do with those other secrets that James had mentioned the Marauders held. 

She tossed and turned for a few more minutes and eventually decided sleep wasn’t going to be a particularly punctual visitor that night and she might as well head back down to the common room so as not to disturb her friends. Grabbing her dressing gown, wand, a loose hair tie, and in the spur of the moment decision, dug through her trunk to grab her fifth year Transfiguration textbook.

Lily tiptoed down the spiral stairs and, curling up by the dying embers, she opened her book to the chapter on conjuring inanimate objects and sat reading.

 

XXXXXX

 

Lily was struggling to stay awake in class as professor McGonagall was going around helping other students with the intricacies of the spell she had mastered last night. Honestly the only reason she hadn’t completely nodded off was the noise coming from the group of four boys she had been watching the whole year. They were loudly and, to both Lily and McGonagall's disappointment, proudly laughing at the rather unique results they were getting at their botched transfigurations. 

Eventually Remus stepped up and did the spell correctly, and almost immediately Sirius began a sonet dedicated to his skill with a wand. James and Peter sat on the outside of the two boys both began a bizarre combination of cheering and pointed eye contact across the table, followed by exaggerated disgusted faces.  

By the end of class three boys had, exuberantly boasting of their success, small pigs in front of them. Meanwhile James sat looking truly confused at the pink coloured guinea pig with an actual pigs tail sitting in front of his desk.

“It seems that your pronunciation could use a bit of work Mr. Potter, along with your ego, I believe we’ve talked about the safety precautions needed when modifying spells before, but I would be happy to remind you of the conversation in your next detention.” McGonagall said as she picked up the small animal, studying it closely.  

“I haven’t got another detention scheduled in as of yet professor, though I do appreciate the invitation.” James said. Lily was surprised that since she knew to look for it, she could see some genuine honesty hidden by his glasses and cocky hair toss. Professor McGonagall must know some of James hidden talents as well. Lily tentatively planned to seek out the Professor during her office hours and see what she could learn from their head of house.  

“Well I’m sure it won’t be long until I receive another complaint from one of my colleagues, insisting I do something about the schools biggests miscreants.  In the meantime 10 points from Gryffindor.”

“What why?!” James protested.

“Well I do believe the assignment was to produce a piglet Mr Potter, not a rodent.” And then turning to the whole class, McGonagall said.  “Dismissed. Enjoy your lunch.” Music to Lily’s ears.

As she reached the door James slid up next to her. A common occurrence, but for the first time, not entirely unwelcome. He casually directed them away from the class and down yet another hidden staircase Lily had never known about. 

“So, I’m sure you might have noticed a few things during class Evans.” James said in a rather quiet and conspiratorial tone. “If I can be of any assistance do let me know.” he punctuated this with a smooth wink. 

“James I have a feeling that the more I learn the more I’m going to be confused and concerned.” Lily pulled her bag further up her shoulder and tried to stay focused on where they were going. She didn’t have the bran power to be anything more than straightforward at this point.

“Well that is rather the goal. Keep you interested and throw others off their rhythm.” 

“Why?” that was the start of so many of Lily’s questions. Why now? Why me? Why them? Why do they do this? Why are they all so careful? Why do they seem to know so much about the castle? Why does she care? Why does McGonagall seem so fond of them? And Why on earth, is her heart beating so loudly as she looks into James eyes?

“Constant vigilance.”

“Seriously James, I, why? Why are you telling me this. Why are telling me that you’ve got all of these secrets?”  

“I like you Lily, and I think if I can be honest with you, maybe you can learn to like me as well.”

“That’s it, just another ploy?” She found herself rather disappointed at the idea that this was just another attempt at James trying to win a date with her. 

“I just want to be friends Lily, I mean it honestly;I like you. I admire your dedication and spirit. I think you just have really positive energy? I mean I know that sounds lame and all but I just I want to talk to you. Without fighting or being hexed.”

“Really?” Friends, she could live with friends, she might actually, surprisingly, like being friends with this more complex and perhaps mature James Potter.

“Really really.”

“That’s very out of character of you James.” Lily settled on.

“I’ve been getting some good advice. A lot of ‘be yourself’ nonsense.”  

“Well I suppose it is working, I mean we’ve made it nearly to the great hall and all your limbs are still in the right place.” Lily tried to lighten the somewhat serious mood they’d created. 

“I’m glad” James said, and the most genuine smile Lily had ever seen came across James face. 

“So, how many secrets have I got to get through, if you’ve decided to let me in? Just so I can prepare myself” Lily asked.

“Oh, that’s a secret.” a beat passed before James added on “And I actually don’t know, We kind of stopped counting at some point.”

“Merlin. That’s probably more intimidating than if you had given me an actual number.”

“Well I do have a flair for the Dramatic.” James said and with that grandly turned to the portrait in front of him and gestured as if he was welcoming Lily into a large room.

“James where have you taken me? I wanted lunch, not an art tour of some of the more bland still lifes in the castle.”

“Ah but we are at lunch” James said before reaching out to tickle the pear in middle of the painting. It turned into a door knob and James swung the portrait open to reveal the hurried bustle of the room beyond.

He stepped over the threshold and Lily watched as an entire village of house elves took a moment to smile and wave, a few even stopping to shout “Hello Mister James Prongs sir!” 

James smiled and returned a few “Hullo Mikky” “Hi Bindy” “Mister Nodder good sir!” the last accompanied a somewhat complicated handshake.

“Mister Prongs you have a lost your pack!” Nodder said with a small hint of alarm to his squeaky voice

“Oh, not lost Nodder, just thought I’d show my new friend the secret heart of Hogwarts”

“Oh! Pardon my rudeness! Nodder is pleased to meet any friend of Mister Prongs!” Nodder bowed toward Lily deeply.  

“I’m sure the pleasure is all mine Monsieur Nodder.” Lily, with a quick glance toward James, responded with a curtsy 

“Oh you are too polite, I can be seeing why you are a friend of Mister Prongs!”

“We we’re hoping we could have lunch down here. As long as we won’t be in your way?” James prompted.

“Not at all sir, what would you be having?” Nodder looked eager to please.

“Whatever is being served of course, please don’t go to extra trouble to make anything different for us.” James said as he led Lily to a small table set to one corner of the kitchen. Nodder had run off to finish what he had been working on previously and then grab place settings for the small table.

Lily sat down, though her attention was still focused on the activity happening across the kitchen and into the long dining hall that reflected the layout of the great hall. 

“It’s cool right?” 

“I can count on one hand the number of house elves I’ve met before. This is crazy, I can’t believe I didn’t know!” Lily said

“It’s cool right, I only know because my mom told me about it, she was big into supporting and understanding ‘House Elves and Their Culture’. That’s literally the title of the book she’s writing about it. Goes on and on about respecting them and their choices. I see what she means though, and Hogwarts is the second best example of a good environment for them.”

“Oh What’s the first then?” Lily asked with interest.

“My house of course.”

“Of course. I do hope she gets that book published, I think it would be a great read, especially as a muggle born.”

“Well if you genuinely are interested I’m sure she’d love to talk to you about it. She’s run out of willing listeners.” 

“Perhaps” Lily agreed, at which point Nodder returned with a well loaded tray of lunch floating a few centimeters behind him, high enough as to not knock into any heads or ears of the house elves. 

“I hope you will be enjoying your lunches!”

“It looks delicious as always Nodder, thank you!”

“My pleasure as always Mister Prongs!” Nodder Bowed to both James and Lily, then seensing the need to allow the two eat in privacy scurried off, shooing a few other curious elves along his way. 

“I don’t suppose you’re mother is also the reason you seem to know every secret path in the castle.” Lily began, wanting to get back to the topic of the apparently innumerable secrets the Marauders had. 

“No, not quite. I can blame my dad for a fair few, but in a roundabout sort of way. He has no idea he has helped us with our discoveries.” James said, with a hand wave and a bit of a Dumbledore-esque twinkle to his eye. 

“Humm, And just out of curiosity, Why didn’t you conjure the pig in class? Especially after helping us last night.”

“Ah, well it’s probably a bit of a bad habit at this point, but I do enjoy the look on McGonagall  face whenever I stump her.” 

“Stump her.” lily said, her confusion coming out as deadpan. 

“I can screw up spells in really odd ways, and she likes the puzzle of unravelling how I think.”

“Oh.” Lily didn’t really know what else to say to that. “How many points have you lost in that class though?”

“Zero.” James answered rather quickly

“You just lost ten today!”

“Well an average of zero then. I usually make any points back when I stay after class and work more on the theory, It’s a deal that Minnie and I worked out like third year.”

“Does she know you call her that?” Lily asked. Most of Gryffindor knew of the somewhat offensive nickname the Marauders had bestowed on their head of house. 

“Oh yeah. That’s actually a great story! We didn’t even come up with it. She  _ told _ us it was her name!” James nearly giggled. 

Lily was mid sip of pumpkin juice and started choking at that, there was no way that was true.

“You know her animagus is a cat right?” James continued

“Yeah.” 

“Well we had detention with her one night and started bugging her about the process and got her to show us again. We decided that she needed a name for her cat self. So of course we started coming up with some. Most of them we’re really bad, Remus suggested ‘ _ purr _ fessor’ and we all cracked up at that. As soon as it came out of his mouth she immediately changed back and, I swear on Godric Gryffindor, Merlin, and my mother, I have never seen anyone look as offended or truly derived of natural poise. I honestly thought she was going to transfigure us into a mice hunt us down.” James was laughing so much at the memory of the face that Lily began to giggle just trying to picture it. “And then she, I would say yelled, but it was more like a spirited proclamation, ‘I ab-so-lute-ly  refuse to be the subject of this rather pointless, and decidedly  **dim** witted conversation gentle _ men _ . I would never accept such Idiotic titles. AND as, a matter of fact, I selected Minnie as my moniker  _ several _ decades before you were born!’ and then she just stomped off!” He was nearly unable to finish, the memory clearly just as funny as the day he’d just described.  

“No!” Lily said full of disbelief and though equally certain that that the boy in front of her was entirely telling the truth.  

“I would never lie about that Lily, honestly one of the best days of my life.”

James and Lily finished their lunch amid a few more laughs and general conversation about Hogwarts gossip. Though she was still waiting to find out more about the secret lives of the Hogwarts pranksters, Lily admitted that even without intrigue and mysteries being uncovered she’d had a lovely time, and that maybe James would make a good friend. Though she was still withholding judgement until she was certain they’d done nothing illegal.  

 

XXXXXX

 

The last two and a half days of the week traipsed on, and Lily noticed the same pattern played out in different ways in many classes. In potions the boys would all accidentally make some mistake in brewing, yet the results were so bizarre that she couldn’t help but think it was intentional, to an extent. She supposed that they probably deserved credit for their acting ability. If she hadn't seen their O.W.L. results, and watched them study first hand she would have continued to assume, along with the rest of the school, the boys were the biggest dunces in the entirety of Hogwarts. Why being idiots was a part of the elaborate disguise to keep their secrets safe was still a mystery to her.

Before the sun was up on Saturday Lily was dressed and ready to find and follow the Marauders, hoping to get her first hint at one of the bigger secrets she now knew existed. She’d spent several hours since that lunch with James trying to guess what some of their secrets might be. Perhaps one of them was a seer, and that’s how they knew where she was hiding, before that study session. Or maybe they all had secretly joined some sort of underground spy club, like the plot of one of her favorite muggle books. She hoped it wasn’t something sinnister, like they’d accidentally murdered someone. Or maybe it was the opposite, maybe they’d seen some horrible murder, and were now in some sort of magical witness protection program. Maybe they were undercover aurors! They were all ancient immortal vampires! 

Lily shook herself out of her head as she set off through the portrait hole in search of the Illustrious mischief makers. On her way down to the dungeons Lily heard some groaning coming from the hospital wing. Surely not, she thought, but decided to poke her head in anyway. 

“Taken to stalking now have we Evans?” Sirius, who was walking from the bathroom in the back of the room toward one of a few curtained off beds stopped and turned to walk over to her instead. 

“As I’m sure you’re aware visiting hours don’t begin until after breakfast, so unless you’re here with a medical emergency, you’d better go”  

“Well If that we’re the case Black, I’d better bring you along with me, as you don’t seem to be needing the services of Madam Pomfrey either.” Lily said, opening the doors a bit further, and taking a small step into the room. 

“Ah, I happen to have special permission to be here.” Sirius said, deliberately moving to block Lily from further entrance. 

“For some reason I don’t entirely believe that we have the same definition of permission.” Lily huffed.

“I would actually agree with you in most cases, but in this one instance, I am here with the knowing consent of Madam Pomfrey and her patients. You however aren’t, so seriously run along now.” Sirius said, “I’m sure with how much you’ve been obliging the whims of darling Prongsie your friends might be suspecting something. Maybe you ought to go catch up with them before marlene jumps to conclusions and begins a gossip chain with you at the center.”

“I don’t like that you’re right Black, and I don’t know if I believe you, but I will be back here right after breakfast.”

“I don’t doubt it Evan’s.” Sirius said, before, gently, closing the door on her. 

Lily stayed at the door a moment longer, pressing her ear to the gap, and faintly heard madam pomfrey presumably telling Sirius his approach was

“A bit unconventional, but effective.” 

 

XXXXXX

 

As Lily entered the great hall she noticed that James, Peter and Remus were all sitting at the table, and decided she’d go see what they could tell her about what exactly Sirius was doing in the hospital wing at such a surprisingly early hour. However midway there she saw several of the 6th year girls sitting together, and with the comment about Marlene’s gossip ability in mind she steered herself toward them instead.

“Lily!” Cried Sydney

“So nice of you to grace us with your presence.” Alice said with a hint of sass. 

“We thought you’d be dining with your new boyfriend.” Marleene wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. 

“Have you finally given in to James’ endless begging?” Raul leaned in, wanted to know the answer to the question on most of the Gryffindor's minds. 

“Honestly, I haven’t spent so much time around any of them for you to assume that I would have agreed to date the prat. I’ve been off studying.” Lily hoped that her half truth would be convincing enough. 

“Mmm, Studying his eyes I’d bet.” Sydney smirked. 

Lily rolled her eyes, almost wishing she’d chosen to sit with the boys regardless of the rumors it would create. Almost on queue with her thought the three of them stood up having finished breakfast. She took in their appearance and hoped that maybe they were on the way to the hospital wing, as Remus looked a bit under the weather, and maybe could use a pepper up potion. Making up her mind Lily stuffed as much breakfast into her mouth as quickly and discreetly as possible. Giving a simple ‘mmhm’ whenever the conversation around her seemed to want her input. Then in order to make a more clandestine escape, she turned to Marleene and said “I’m suddenly not feeling to well, maybe breakfast wasn’t the greatest idea, I’m going to head to the hospital wing, so don’t wait up for me.”

“Oh no Lily, was it the eggs? You know I sometimes start to get nauseous when I eat to many.” 

“Not sure, but I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry, tell everyone else I say to have a nice weekend. And also that No, I haven't suddenly changed my mind and agreed to go out with Potter.” 

“Alright Lils, I’m sure we can calm the rumor mill down, if it’ll help your ‘stomach ache’”

“Hey! You can’t mock me i don’t feel good!”

“Fine fine, go on, we’re probably gonna spend some time blowing off steam in the prefects bathroom, have a bit of a pool party, if you’re feeling better please come join us.” Marleene sounded like she really wanted lily to come, and that, more than anything else made Lily realize exactly how much time she’d spent with James and his friends in the last month or so.

“Yeah, that sounds fun. I’ll come, as soon as I feel better, I promise.” Hoping that she hadn’t lost the boys, or at least that she’d find them on her way to the hospital wing, Lily set off. 

 

XXXXXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow another chapter?! so soon?! I know, I'm shocked too. 
> 
> I'm gonna go on a quick little rant about house elves, since I brought it up in this chapter, and don't ever talk about it. Feel free to skip past though, it doesn't pertain to the story in any important way. 
> 
> One of the things I touched on a little here is house elves, as it's been one of the things that I have some opinions on that I don't see talked about too often. While I think Hermione had her heart in the right place with SPEW, there is something about forcibly freeing, and even tricking house elves into freedom that I don't agree with. The idea of payment is slightly more complicated and I think that while yes House elves are entitled to compensation, that needs to be done in a non offensive way, and that would depend heavily on the culture of House elves and on the individual elf. While yes we know Dobby wanted to be paid in wizard currency, he seems to be an exception to the rule, based on how other elves react to him. Dobby also came from an abusive household, so his differences are completely understandable. But for most elves it seems like freedom, and in some ways traditional payment would be an offensive gesture. However since I think that James and his family know more about magical culture, their treatment of house elves would basically be the opposite of the Malfoy's. Understanding that the arrangement between a house elf and their family is mutually desired and that there is a level of respect and familial love that must be present in the relationship. I'd believe that gifts and heirlooms from the family, similar to the treasures that Kreatcher had, serve as a sort of payment that is much more appropriate and respectful. In my opinion Loyalty and Friendship rather than freedom and money, is the centerpiece of the house elf belief system. I have huge respect for house elves and what they do.   
> ANyway I probably wont talk about this more, but if you did read though all of this, I hope that some of my logic makes sense to you, and I hope you have a great day.


End file.
